Cloths and other wiping products have been known for a very long time, and remarkable improvements in those products have been infrequent. Most wiping products, or wipes, are made from either a woven or nonwoven sheet, and are used either by hand or on the end of a mop handle to move dirt and dust in a desired direction. When the dirt or dust has been collected, the wipe may be scrunched up by the user to try to capture the dirt or sand that has been collected so that it can be shaken out in the trash. This simple process is repeated thousands or millions of times every day, and yet it often requires a user who is attempting to pick up larger particles such as sand to repeat the process several times to pick up all the sand or heavier particles that have been collected.
PCT Publication Number WO 01/41622, entitled “Non-apertured Cleaning Sheets Having Non-Random Macroscopic Three-Dimensional Character,” discloses a cleaning sheet that has recessed and raised regions. Certain additives can be applied to the sheets to provide improved performance. Those additives, which may include things such as waxes, pest control ingredients, antimicrobials, and other ingredients, are preferably applied in a substantially uniform way to at least one discrete continuous area of the sheet. However, it is believed that the cleaning sheets described in this publication collect dust and particles on the raised portions, which can subsequently scratch the surface as a user continues to clean that surface. For example, it is believed that sand particles that are collected on the raised portions can scratch wood surfaces, which is obviously undesirable.
Another publication, Japanese Kokai Patent Application No. HEI 9-164110, discloses in general terms a cleaning cloth that includes an adhesive. In at least one embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3(A) and 3(B), a cleaning cloth includes an adhesive layer positioned between compressible layers. In FIG. 3(A), the cleaning cloth is being used with a tool to clean a surface, and the adhesive layer is not in contact with the surface. In FIG. 3(B), pressure is applied to the tool so that the adhesive layer comes into contact with the surface, so as to pick up particles such as sand and dirt. When the pressure is released, the cleaning cloth presumably returns to the position shown in FIG. 3(A). Although cleaning cloths of this type may be useful for some applications, they appear to require a specific action of the user in order to make the adhesive effective. The adhesive does not appear to remove large particles from the floor as part of the normal floor sweeping process but rather an additional force must be applied for the adhesive to come into contact with the dust and debris. No details are provided with respect to the composition or compressive strength of the cloth, the height difference between the adhesive and the working surface of the cloth, or the adhesive types.
PCT Publication Number WO 01/80705 also describes a cleaning sheet with particle retaining cavities. The cleaning sheet is prepared by coating a nonwoven backing layer with an adhesive, followed by lamination of an apertured nonwoven onto the adhesive layer. The particle retaining cavities have a cross-sectional area of 1-10 mm and the cleaning sheets often include 0.1-5% adhesive, as a percentage of the total weight of the cleaning sheet. In another embodiment, the cleaning sheet may be formed from a single layer (i.e. no backing layer) of a slightly thicker fabric material that includes cavities in at least one of its major surfaces. It is believed that because the amount of adhesive is so small, the cleaning sheets described in this publication collect dust and particles on the raised portions, which can subsequently scratch the surface as a user continues to clean that surface. Furthermore, since the recessed cavities are discontinuous, there is no path for the dirt that is missed by the front portion of the cloth to move back through the cloth and get trapped by the rear portions of the cloth.
Another publication, Japanese Kokoku Patent Application No. 3231993, discloses a cleaning sheet that includes a base material made of a nonwoven fabric, an intermediate sheet having a pressure-sensitive adhesive coated on both sides, and a surface sheet that consists of a mesh having many apertures or holes. The apertured surface sheet is bonded to the base material via the intermediate double-sided adhesive coated sheet. The cleaning sheet has first and second areas, in which the second area has an adhesive surface that traps dirt, and the first area has a surface that is either nonadhesive or exhibits lower adhesion than the second area. The elasticity of the first area in the thickness direction is higher than that of the second area. The cleaning sheet does not have a continuous path of adhesive with which dirt particles can come into contact, and thus there is no path for the dirt that is missed by the front portion of the cleaning sheet to move back through the cleaning sheet and get trapped by the rear portions of the cleaning sheet. Another embodiment describes punching out disks or strips of a nonwoven fabric and bonding these to the intermediate adhesive sheet at specified intervals instead of using the surface mesh sheet. Although this embodiment may make more efficient use of the adhesive areas of the cleaning sheet, it is believed that this embodiment would be difficult to manufacture and may not be very durable. No details are provided with respect to the compositions of various components of the cleaning sheets, the elasticities of the first and second areas, the height difference between the adhesive and the working surface of the cloth, the adhesive types, or the performance characteristics of the cleaning sheets.
These and other known wipes seem to suffer from one or more disadvantages, and accordingly it would be useful to provide a new wipe that overcomes those disadvantages.